The clinic is described as: “Learn how to supercharge your drumming technique – from a metal master! Acclaimed for his incredibly tight, technical, and powerful drumming skills, Gene will demonstrate his killer technique, discuss his projects, share tips and methods, and answer your questions.”

As previously reported, Gene will be joining Bay Area thrashers TESTAMENT on the road for select dates on their upcoming co-headlining run with ANTHRAX. Gene will join Testament from October 28th through November 13th. He issued the following statement regarding the upcoming tour:

“As many of you know, I just played on the new Testament record, Dark Roots Of Earth, which went amazingly well. The dudes were kind enough ask me to join them for a couple weeks on this tour with Anthrax and DEATH ANGEL. I’m super stoked to do the shows. It’s going to be a great time. Just so everybody knows, I will be selling my Drum Instructional DVD, The Atomic Clock, at the shows (shameless plug). If you can’t make it out to one of the shows, buy it on line!”

With regards to The Atomic ClockDVD, Hoglan offers the following:

“It’s two hours of super-duper fun. I tried to make it entertaining for all. I wanted to make it something that was for more than just drummers and musicians. It’s for anybody who wants to spend a couple hours in front of the tube checking something cool out; that’s what I designed it for. It’s pretty darn entertaining, and it is chock full of information.”

And Hoglan is a good guy to go to for information on drumming. The DVD (available at Hoglanindustries.com or Reversedrecords.com in Canada) will reveal many of the man’s unusual quirks and attitudes towards bashing the skins – something he’s been doing as a career since 1989, so he knows his stuff.

“I have some unorthodox approaches and philosophies to drumming,” says Hoglan, “so there’s a lot of stuff on there you’ll probably be hearing for the very first time.”

Unlike a lot of instructional DVDs, The Atomic Clock is extremely user-friendly. Hoglan didn’t want to create a DVD that made people feel uncomfortable in any way, as he feels a lot of instructional DVDs actually end up alienating the viewer.

“Absolutely,” he says. “You’ve got this guy with great chops, he’s a killer player, and he has absolutely no personality. It kinda feels like he’s talking down to you, like you’re receiving instructions from a high-school teacher. Who hates you.”

And like his unorthodox playing style, his style for filming a DVD was pretty off the beaten path. For example, with the exception of songs that Hoglan plays along to, all of it is improvised, and the same goes for the “script.”

“All of it is ad libbed, all of it is off the top of my head,” says Hoglan. “Even the drumming on it is completely ad libbed. Except for the songs that I play to a pre-recorded track, every lick on there is pretty much me coming up with it on the spot.”
Source: Bravewords